


In Just Twelve Days

by Inkwell1013



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Family Fluff, Fluff, Ice Skating, Inspired by Hallmark Christmas Movies, Literally just a hallmark christmas movie, M/M, Sledding, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:27:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28226871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkwell1013/pseuds/Inkwell1013
Summary: Crowley is a reporter in London, who is sent to the small village of Tadfield, to report on the villages famous Christmas festival. There he meets the towns innkeeper and bookshop owner, Aziraphale, who is a single father to eleven year old Adam. Crowley has never liked Christmas, because of some negative experiences in his childhood and Aziraphale is determined to change Crowley’s views on the holiday.
Relationships: Aziraphale & Adam Young (Good Omens), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Am I writing a Hallmark Christmas movie? Yes. Can anyone stop me? No.  
> I reblog stuff on [tumblr ](https://inkwell1013.tumblr.com/) if you wanna follow me.

Christmas sucked. It was one of the few constant truths in Crowley’s life. The sun shone, his parents were the worst and Christmas fucking sucked.

The entire season had been unkind to Crowley. He had suffered through it twenty four times in his lifetime and it had never once been good. One of his earliest memories was his dad walking out on them on Boxing day. And it had all went downhill from there. Every holiday season after that had been tenuous and stressful, especially with his parents ensuing divorce.

Then he came out at seventeen and was promptly thrown out of the house. On Christmas too. In the seven years since, he had not bothered to celebrate it. The whole experience had left a bad taste in his mouth and he didn’t see the point. It was a stupid holiday anyway.

He took a swig of his coffee, and sat at his desk. Turning on his computer, he vaguely noticed that it was December 13th and frowned. It was close enough to Christmas that the mildly irritating behaviour of his co-workers, such as humming Christmas songs when they should be working, would be amplified into invites to office Christmas parties, ugly Christmas jumpers and tinsel everywhere.

How irritating.

“Happy Holidays Anthony!” Lee said cheerfully, setting some papers on Crowley’s desk. “Can you check these over for me? Miss Beatriz is on a warpath today and I don’t want to submit anything with mistakes in it.”

“Sure. Know why she’s in a bad mood?” He took the first sheet of paper and started correcting Lee’s admittingly interesting piece on the city’s new youth program. Lee’s writing was mostly good, but he wasn’t the best at grammar.

“I don’t know,” Lee shrugged. “Just stay out of her way and you’ll be fine.” Crowley handed Lee his papers and got back to work. Not even three minutes later, he felt the domineering presence of his boss standing right behind him. He turned around and a tight smile spread across Beatriz’s face.

“Anthony, can you step into my office for a minute?” she said, beckoning her to follow him. So much for staying out her way.

He followed her into her office and shut the door behind them. “I assume you’re busy,” she said. “So I’ll be quick. I need someone to travel to the village of Tadfield to cover their Christmas celebrations. Damien was going to go but his baby was born premature so he’s taking time off. You’ll be there for twelve days. Can you do it?”

“With all due respect, I hardly think I’m the best person for this story. I’m not exactly a big fan of Christmas.”

“Anthony, not to be rude, but I don’t care. Someone has to take this assignment and you’re my next best reporter after Damien.”

Crowley sighed. “I don’t have a choice here, do I?”

“You don’t.”

He frowned a little. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

It was last minute for sure, but at least the pay was good.

Crowley caught the train to Tadfield the next morning. Beatriz had arranged for someone named Aziraphale Eden to pick him up from the station. According to Beatriz, Aziraphale owned the only inn in town, as well as the local bookshop, and Crowley would be staying there until Boxing day.

Crowley fetched his bag from the overhead locker and got off the train. The station was small, which Crowley had expected. This was a small village after all, it wouldn’t have made sense for the station to be as big as the ones in the city. It was very quiet there, with just a handful of people wandering around.

One of these was a man standing not so far away, who was holding a sign with Crowley’s name on it. “Hey, you’re Aziraphale, right?” Crowley said, approaching the man.

The man smiled and lowered his sign. “That’s me. I’m guessing that you’re Anthony then.”

“Yep.”

“The inn isn’t very far from here. I hope you’re okay with walking.” Crowley shrugged. He had no problem with walking. If anything, he was looking forward to seeing what this village looked like.

The pair left the station and stepped into the town square. It was colder outside than Crowley had expected, and he could see his breath turning to mist in the cool air. There was a large Christmas tree set up right in front of them.

“I see the town’s ready for Christmas,” he remarked, shoving his hands into his coat pockets, as they kept walking

“Yes. Isn’t it exciting!” Aziraphale beamed. “I adore Christmas. It’s my favourite holiday.”

“Why?” asked Crowley. “There’s nothing great about it.”

“Nothing great about Christmas?” exclaimed Aziraphale. “There’s giving gifts, eating good food, snowball fights, carolling, being with your family and much more. The season’s full of good. That’s why I love it so much.”

Crowley winced at the mention of family. His family had ruined almost every Christmas he had had as a child. “I’ve never been a fan,” he admitted. “Had some bad experiences and they sort of… put a damper on the festivities for me.”

Aziraphale gave him a determined look. “How long are you in Tadfield?” he asked.

“Twelve days. I’m leaving on Boxing day morning.”

Aziraphale considered a moment. “Twelve days…” he said. “I reckon I can make you love Christmas in twelve days.”


	2. Chapter 2

After Aziraphale’s bold declaration, he had stayed frustratingly tight lipped, simply giving Crowley a smirk and insisting it was a surprise. They arrived at the inn after a few minutes of Crowley unsuccessfully trying to get an answer from Aziraphale.

Aziraphale handed Crowley his key and bade him farewell. Crowley watched him leave and wondered what Aziraphale had meant when he said that he could make Crowley love Christmas again. Still, it was late, so he decided to go to bed.

He was startled awake the next morning by a knock at the door. Opening it up, he found Aziraphale standing there, holding a wooden sled in one hand and a small boy’s hand in the other. “Morning Anthony. It snowed last night, so I’m taking my son sledding. I though you might like to come with us.”

“It snowed? I didn’t even notice.” Crowley walked over to the window and drew back the curtains. The entire landscape was coated in snow as far as the eye could see.

“Are you coming or not?” demanded the boy. “I want to get out before the snow melts.”

“We will Adam, just give Mr Crowley a minute to decide.” Both Aziraphale and Adam gave Crowley an expectant glance.

Crowley shifted awkwardly. “I’ve never been sledding before,” he admitted. “But I want to try.”

“Then come with us!” said Aziraphale cheerily. Crowley found he didn’t want to decline, even if only to keep that smile on Aziraphale’s face.

They ended up on a golf course - the owners let kids sled there when it snowed because it was impossible to golf in those conditions – with a few other kids. Adam introduced them as his friends, or as he called them, The Them. All the children carried a sled and were wrapped up in warm coats.

The group trudged to the top of the hill and Crowley pulled his coat a little tighter with each step. It was absolutely freezing so high up. Once they reached the precipice, the group looked out across the frozen landscape.

“Anthony gets to go first because he’s not done it before!” exclaimed Pepper. Adam gleefully nodded and handed Crowley his sled. Crowley tentatively placed down the sled and sat down, feeling faintly ridiculous. He was a very tall man and this was a child’s sled, so he had to pull his knees right up to his shoulders to make himself fit.

While he was steeling his nerves, Adam came up behind him and gave him a swift push. Crowley went skidding down the hill, wind rushing trough his long hair. He couldn’t stop himself from laughing because of sheer exhilaration he was feeling.

Then he hurtled head first into a pile of snow.

Aziraphale rushed over and pulled him out. “Are you hurt?” he asked. “I was going to warn you to steer clear of that snow but I got cut short.” He shot a sharp look at Adam, who rolled his eyes.

“I’m fine,” laughed Crowley. “That was pretty fun. Can we go again?”


	3. Chapter 3

Crowley had assumed this was a one off – that Aziraphale had invited Crowley in a random moment of kindness – and that he wouldn’t hear from the innkeeper again during his stay. He was wrong. Crowley was sat on his bed, working through some emails when there was that same knock at the door that he had heard yesterday.

“Come in.”

Aziraphale cracked the door open. “Morning Anthony. I’m going ice skating,” he said, holding up two pairs of skates by the laces. “Do you want to come?”

Crowley took a look at the long ranting email Lee had sent him – something about Beatriz being her usual insufferable self – and decided fuck it. He didn’t want to deal with work right now anyway.

“I’d love to.” He turned off his computer and pulled on a jacket. “Is your son coming with us?”

“Adam’s got the flu. I was going to stay home to look after him, but he insisted that I go anyway. We’d been planning this outing for days and he didn’t want me to waste the rental on the skates. Since I have two pairs, I thought I’d invite you.”

“That’s kind of you. I mean, you didn’t have to.” Crowley closed the door behind himself, and they started walking down the hallway in step.

“It’s no bother Anthony, really. Besides, the village’s lake skating is always a fun event. Might give you something to write about in your newspaper.”

Crowley laughed. “Hopefully it will.”

Crowley had expected a small gathering, maybe a dozen people at most, and was floored by how many people were there. Definitely upward of a hundred people there, all getting ready to go out on the ice. He was suddenly worried that he was going to embarrass himself in front of all these people.

They went over to a small kiosk where Aziraphale exchanged the smaller pair of skates for some in Crowley’s size. They both laced up and Crowley watched in awe as Aziraphale glided onto the ice. He looked graceful and poised, like he was born to skate. The skates were merely an extension of himself - a way to funnel all his energy into a dance-like movement.

After a few moments, Aziraphale came back to the edge of the lake and offered out his hand. “Aren’t you going to skate?” he asked.

“I don’t know how,” stammered Crowley. “What if I make a fool of myself?”

“You’ll be fine. Come on, take my hand.” Crowley took a deep breath and grabbed a hold of Aziraphale’s hand, who pulled him onto the ice. It quickly became apparent that Crowley lacked Aziraphale’s grace on the ice. Feeling like a baby deer, unsure and skittering on his new feet, he looked expectantly at Aziraphale for some sort of instruction.

“You have to move your feet out in a V-shape, like this.” Aziraphale demonstrated the movement, adding a little spin at the end, mostly just to show off.

“I’m still not sure… what if I fall?” he asked.

“I’ll hold your arms to stabilise you. Come on, give it a go.” Crowley took a single shaky slide forward, looking nervously toward Aziraphale for his approval. “Great job! Now you just need to do it again.”

He felt his confidence grow a little bit as he began to slowly move across the ice, while Aziraphale was holding him steady. Then Aziraphale let go and glided back a few paces. “See if you can skate over to me without help.”

Crowley slowly moved toward Aziraphale, stumbling a little at the end and nearly falling over. Aziraphale grabbed a hold of his shoulders to stop him from falling, and pulled him up. “Still a little unsure huh?” he laughed.

“What can I say? I suppose you’ll have to teach me a little more,” said Crowley. It was a risky move. He was being more flirtatious than he probably should have been, considering how little he knew Aziraphale. They were acquaintances - essentially strangers.

Then Aziraphale laughed again. “Of course Mr Crowley. I’d be happy to show you more.”

Oh well, it seemed his flirting had gone over Aziraphale’s head.

They skated together for a while longer. It was fun. Crowley hadn’t felt like this about someone in such a long time. There was a slight chance he had developed a bit of a crush.

Crowley bade Aziraphale goodbye once they arrived back at the inn, saying that he had some work to do. Aziraphale hung up his coat, and noticed Adam sitting on the couch watching TV. “Hey Dad,” he said. “How did it go?”

Aziraphale threw his head into his hands. “I don’t know. I thought maybe it was going somewhere but… I don’t know. What if I’m wrong? He seems like such a kind man, but I don’t… I don’t think he’d be interested in me. I mean, even if he was, he’s going home in ten days. We could never make it work.”

Adam raised an eyebrow. “But do you like him?” he asked.

Aziraphale paused for a moment. “I think I do,” he admitted.

“Then we’ll figure something out. But you two need to like communicate and shit.”

“Language!”

Adam rolled his eyes. “I missed skating today so you could make googly eyes at your crush. I think I’m entitled to a swear or two.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You know I hate it when you swear. You’re too young for that.”

“And you’re too old to be acting like a lovesick teenager.”

“Touché,” laughed Aziraphale. “We’re having meatloaf for dinner by the way.”

“I hate meatloaf.” Adam crossed his arms in a childish display of defiance. It was in moments like this that Aziraphale remembered how young Adam was. Too young to go through what he did. No-one should lose their parents like that – especially not at eight years old.

“You know what, we can have something else,” he conceded. Adam had given up one of his favourite activities for him and Aziraphale appreciated it. It couldn’t hurt to give him a little reward. “What would you like?” he asked

“Can we order pizza?”

“Okay, but just this once, as a treat.” Adam beamed and Aziraphale figured that smile was worth more than anything else in this world. He would trade it for nothing.


End file.
